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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
Bond is back in a big way. His latest outing in No Time To Die has firmly put cinema back at the centre of cultural moments, with audiences returning in their droves to watch the highly anticipated film on the big screen.
The film has grossed a record-breaking £26m at the UK box office across the industry in just four days, quickly making it the biggest film of the year so far. Its Friday – Sunday box office of £21m is bigger than that of both Skyfall and SPECTRE.
Across DCM’s estate, which includes Odeon, Cineworld, Vue, Picturehouse, Curzon and over 160 independent cinemas, representing 80% of the market, immediate point-of-sale data delivered in real-time has shown that audience numbers for the opening weekend is over 2m admissions.
To put into context, a pre-pandemic full week would deliver 2.5m admissions across the DCM estate, with the full coming week expected to deliver 2.8m admissions across all films.
Advertiser demand for Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007 was extremely high, with a record number of forward bookings and brands looking to take advantage of the commercial opportunities associated with the cultural phenomenon that is James Bond.
All premium spots sold out almost two months in advance, with a range of brands taking advantage of the most prestigious positions in cinema advertising, which as audiences have started to see since the film released yesterday includes Sky, Google, Pokerstars, Peroni and Lloyds.
The full ad reel sold out over two weeks in advance, with other brands across categories including telecoms, motors, food and drink, and entertainment and leisure booking in.
Cinema delivers engaged and attentive audiences. Almost 40% of cinema’s returning audience to date are 16-34s, which is up from 34% from pre-pandemic, but Bond has been drawing back those less frequent cinemagoers, including older audiences who have not been returning so far.
Karen Stacey, CEO, Digital Cinema Media, commented: “The UK cinema industry’s reopening has been a resounding success to date, but the anticipated return of Bond has solidified the pent-up desire from audiences to return to watch new content on the big screen. Advertisers are also taking advantage of the unique and immersive experience the cinema medium offers, bolstering cinema ad revenues.
“This is a watershed moment for the cinema industry. The medium has continued to thrive alongside TV, home videos and, most recently, streaming platforms. There has always been a reason to return to the big screen and we’re only just getting started with this next, golden age for the industry.”
Cinema is on the way back, being led by Bond, but the film slate for the rest of the year and into 2022 looks just as remarkable with a whole range of big cultural moments, many of which are being showcased at the BFI London Film Festival (6-17 October), for brands to align with and continue engaging the diverse cinemagoing audience. Other big titles including Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Marvel’s Eternals, West Side Story, The Batman and Top Gun: Maverick.